


A different path

by Boredinthehouse



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, I Tried, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Sorry, I’m not really sure where this is going, Probably happy ending, Slow Burn, could end very sadly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:01:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24757435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boredinthehouse/pseuds/Boredinthehouse
Summary: Irene enters her third year at hogwarts, but she finds her friends drifting away from her as the year progresses. Will they let her in on what’s happening or will she Find new friends elsewhere?This is my first time writing/ uploading something like this so I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors. I’m planning on having this story cover books 3-7, but stray from the canon a little here and there. Stay safe :)
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s), Draco Malfoy/Reader, Draco Malfoy/You
Kudos: 7





	1. A beginning of sorts

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there, and thanks for picking my story!  
> I will reiterate that this is my first story that I’m trying to write so dont expect perfection. This will hopefully be a very slow build up to any sort of romance between you and Draco, keep that in mind. Feedback is appreciated, thanks a million for giving me a chance, and stay safe. Now please enjoy this mess.

_You, Irene Selzman, find yourself standing on the hidden platform of Kings Cross station, watching in awe as a busy crowd of wizards, witches, and even muggles like your grandmother move around you. You watch as a woman embraces her son before tearfully waving him towards the large red train that sits in the tracks. You are pulled from your trance when your new friend Hermione, who you had met recently while shopping for some rather bizarre school supplies in Diagon Alley with your grandmother, pulls you gently towards the train. You smile at Hermione, gesturing for her to go ahead, and turn to wave one last time at your grandmother before following your friend onto the train. You follow her through the corridors of the train, excitement running through your veins as she stops in front of various compartments before finding an empty one._

_“Aren’t you excited?” She asks, looking at you._

_“Very, I’m a little nervous but I’ve got you for a friend so at least I’m not alo-”_

_Before you can finish your sentence a boy starts banging frantically on the door, and Hermione stands to let him in._

_“Have.. have you guys seen.. a frog?” The boy asks, winded from his search._

_You shake your head as Hermione asks him his name._

_“Neville, longbottom. I’ve got to find Trevor.”_

_Neville turns to ask the next compartment before Hermione speaks again._

_“Wait! I’m sure we can help you look. I’m Hermione Granger, this is Irene Selzman,”_

_You stand up and wave at Neville, following the two into the hallway._

_“Nice to meet you Neville,”_

_Neville smiles, “Thanks a ton, Trevor’s really important,”_

_You follow Hermione one way down the corridor towards another car as Neville continues the other way. A few minutes pass of searching for the frog and you can tell Hermione is getting a little bored. The next compartment holds two boys and a literal ton of sweets. You stand awkwardly in the door as Hermione explains the situation again, receiving the same response you’ve been getting._

_But before you move on, a wand that is in one of the boys hands catches your friend's eye and she asks,_ _“Are you doing magic?”_

_Which leads to a small demonstration from the red haired wand wielder, and soon you find yourself sitting beside Hermione as she repairs the second boy's glasses. You zone out for a few moments, staring out the window and trying to absorb everything that’s been happening._

_“I’m Hermione Granger and this is Irene Selzman,”_

_At the mention of your name you look back at the people around you and smile politely, trying to not let on that you weren’t paying attention. Hermione makes a few blunt comments before exiting the compartment and you follow behind._

_She turns to you and pulls you towards your own car saying, “We should go back to our compartment, I think we will arrive soon.”_

_Minutes after you had safely reached your original compartment the train slowed to a stop and everyone on board poured out in front of a very tall man with a large beard._

_“That's Hagrid,” hermione whispers to you._

_Hagrid leads you and the other first years to lantern lit boats which float everyone across the Black Lake to the fantastic looking Hogwarts castle. Once the group is all inside Professor McGonagall leads it down the center of the great hall where everyone waits for the sorting to begin. You watch as Hermione is sorted into Gryffindor, as is Neville, and Harry Potter, the boy with the glasses. Soon you find yourself sitting in front of the whole school as the hat is lowered onto your head._

_“Hmmm another difficult one, tell me, where do you want to be sorted?” The hat speaks to you quietly._

_You sit and think for a moment, you don't know a lot about the other houses but your friends got put into Gryffindor._

_“Gryffindor?” You mumble, feeling unprepared and out of place._

_The hat is indignant, “GRYFFINDOR? YOU? IN GRYFFINDOR?”_

_It begins to laugh loudly and you see students begin to whisper with their friends._

_“YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF GRYFFINDOR! YOU COULDN'T SAVE YOUR PARENTS AND YOU THINK YOU ARE WORTHY TO BE IN SUCH BRAVE COMPANY AS HARRY POTTER?”_

_The booming voice is heard by everyone in the hall as the hat morphs into a shadowy figure which presses the cold barrel of a gun to the back of your head._

_“You are a coward,” the figure hisses._

_Hermione stands up and starts to move towards you but the figure turns quickly and shoots her in the head, a scream is trapped in your throat as she falls to the ground. You are frozen in the chair as pandemonium breaks out, the previously beautiful floating candles begin to rain down on the students, their robes catching fire while the figure laughs manically. You turn your head to see that the professors, as well as the figure, have disappeared. When you turn your head forward again the hall is on fire, and the scent of burning hair filling your nostrils. Your eyes meet Harry’s before fire swallows him whole, and you release your scream to join the hundreds echoing around you._

************************************

You jolt up in a cold sweat in your bed, clutching your sheets around you, prepared to scream before realizing where you are. Dropping back onto your pillow you let out a shaky sigh, listening to the sounds of your fellow gryffindors sleep. Feeling an urge to urinate you get out of bed and quietly make your way to the restroom. Once you are sure of having complete privacy you cry on the toilet before trying to pull yourself together.

“I have a right to be in Gryffindor, I am brave, I couldn’t have saved my parents and it's not my fault.”

You repeat your mantra a few times before returning to bed, thankfully sleeping through the rest of the night without interruption.

You wake to Hermione violently shaking your shoulder, “Come on Irene, it's time to get up!”

You groan and pick the gunk out of your eyes, before begrudgingly dressing and taking care of your hygiene in the bathroom. When the two of you are ready to face the day you head to the gryffindor common room where you see Harry and Ron waiting. When the two boys see you they walk over, and hermione talks to them excitedly. You aren’t quite awake enough to share in her enthusiasm so you trail behind a little, going over your schedule in your head as the four of you make your way to the great hall for breakfast. The beginnings of a headache are not helped by the loud and busy atmosphere of the hall, and you hold your head in your hands as your friends continue to conversate noisily at the gryffindor table. Hermione pokes your shoulder.

“Are you ready for care of mythical creatures?”

You lift your head to answer her.

“I don't care for animals very much.”

Hermione feigns shock, “what? You haven’t said that a thousand times!”

You slam your head back into your hands as she laughs, stopping when Ron points out something wicked coming your way.

“Malfoy,” Harry mutters with disgust.

You once again raise your head to watch the sneering rodent of a boy making his way past.

“Potter,” he spits out, “I see your companions haven’t left your pitiful self yet.”

“Buzz off malfoy,” Ron says with his mouth full of some magical pastry.

You can see malfoy is about to speak so you cut him off.

“We don't have time for your attitude right now, or to be frank ever.”

Draco scoffs before continuing his way to his friends at the slytherin table. You turn back to your friends.

“I was kinda hoping he fell down a well or something and wouldn’t show up this year.”

They voice their agreement before continuing to eat, and once your stomachs are full the four of you head to your first class of the year.

A mix of gryffindors and slytherins follow Hagrid into the forest for class, each student carrying a pretty aggressive textbook. The fact that the class is held with the slytherin students unfortunately meant that you and your friends had to put up with Draco. The presence of Draco combined with learning about animals in a very hands on environment was a recipe for an unpleasant experience. Not to mention the headache you were nursing this morning was gradually getting worse. The group reaches a clearing in the forest and you freeze in fear. Standing ahead of you, next to Hagrid, was a huge monstrous creature. You can barely hear what Hagrid is saying over the blood rushing in your ears. Suddenly everyone around you takes a step back, and not wanting to be singled out you follow. Harry is left separated from the group so Hagrid chooses him to demonstrate proper interaction with this animal. You feel weak and queasy and most of all terrified for Harry, so you lean against Hermione as Harry approaches the beast. Of course Draco is quick to notice how scared you look and laughs with his friends at your weak appearance. You raise your middle finger towards him in response, watching in horror as Hagrid puts Harry on the back of the creature and sends it off into the air. The pounding in your head and the worry you feel reaches a crescendo, and you puke before promptly fainting, slipping out of Hermione's grasp into the pool of vomit on the ground.

You gain consciousness in the hospital wing back at the school, which seems like a dramatic place to be but you had made a pretty dramatic exit. You sit up, still feeling a little nauseous, and look around the room. You are disappointed to see your friends aren’t waiting nearby, and doubly disappointed to see who is in the cot next to you.

“Mudblood,” the blond rat spits.

“Rodent,” you mutter in response.

After an uncomfortable few minutes in relative silence, a nurse notices you are awake and makes her way over to you.

“Hello miss selzman, how are you feeling?”

“Pretty queasy, tired I guess.”

The nurse nods curtly.

“You are suffering from a stomach flu, and should stay here to heal for the remainder of the night.”

You nod with a forced smile as she begins to back away.

“Let us know if you need anything.”

_Where are your friends?_

You sit in boredom listening to the sick people around you for what feels like days until finally classes end and your companions come to visit. Hermione speedwalks towards you when she sees you weakly waving from your bed, Harry and Ron follow close behind.

“Are you alright?”

“What happened?”

“Are you dying?”

You sit up to answer your friends questions.

“I’m ok just a little queasy, the nurse said I had a stomach flu so i'll be here until the morning. And no Ron, I’m not dying.”

Your friends, satisfied with your answers, visibly calm.

“How was the first day? What did I miss?”

They relay the day's events to you, and you learned how Malfoy came to be your neighbor.

“That was kinda stupid of him to do, just how arrogant is he? He got a taste of what he deserves,” you said quietly even though you were fairly sure the rat was asleep.

Next hermione dropped the stack of work that you missed for the day next to you on the bed and you flipped through it in shock.

“All of this? On the first day? Have they no mercy?”

She shrugged, “If you focus it should be finished quickly enough.”

You talk with them for a while longer before Ron points out that the dining hall is going to close soon. You thank them for visiting, exchanging goodbyes and good nights, and before you know it the wing is quiet again. You had barely started to flip through the work you have to do when you hear the rat waking up so you quickly pretend to be asleep.

“Pst. PST, hey selzman. I know you're awake,”

A grape hits you on the forehead and you squeeze your eyes shut tighter.

“I've got to talk to you,”

He pelts four more grapes at you before you sit up angrily.

“What?!? What do you want?” You whisper shout at him before realizing that he's pretending to be asleep.

You slump back into your bed and begin looking at the papers again when another grape hits your head.

_This is gonna be a long night._


	2. Rat boy

You wake up feeling drained after a moderately restless night in the hospital wing, due to the unnerving, _and annoying_ , presence of one draco malfoy. You gather the work that Hermione had passed on to you and make your way through the school's wide stone corridors warm with the early morning light. Once you’ve showered and changed into a clean set of clothes you make your way to the great hall to meet your friends for breakfast. You realize the three of them are so engaged in a whispered conversation that they don't notice your arrival in the hall until you quietly sit next to hermione. The three faces which were so worried and focused a moment prior are now glowing cheerfully, questioning you about your wellbeing. Despite this front, _you're being ridiculous there’s no front_ , the air feels thick and tense around you, weighted with whispered secrets. Registering that Hermione said something you pry yourself from your thoughts. 

“Hm?”

She looks at you intensely, her eyes searching yours for some unknown secret.

_Stop being paranoid._

“I was just asking how you feel, you seem a little distant.”

You avert your eyes to examine a rather fascinating chip in the table before she can dissect you completely.

“I feel a lot better, really. But my neighbor seemed to find distracting me from my work incredibly amusing so I’m a little tired, but other than that I really am fine.”

You look up again to see Hermione's expression which read, _“I think there’s something you’re not saying, and you could tell me,”_ or maybe _“there’s something I’m not saying that has to do what we were whispering about and I should tell you.”_

Then her expression folds into something more familiar.

“You completed all of your work right?”

The easily recognizable expression of genuine concern on Hermione's face melted the paranoid thoughts racing through your head, and you laughed happily, nodding your head in response.

After that breakfast went smoothly, clouds of joy and appreciation pushing away any concerns that your friends were leaving you out of something. The first two classes of the day also went smoothly, and you began to think that this year might not be so bad after all. Before lunch you dashed around, turning in any work you missed to the appropriate teachers. You had just handed in some notes to Hagrid and was en route to lunch when you turned a corner too quickly and abruptly bumped into none other than malfoy, who dropped a pile of papers he was carrying.

“Mudblood,” he hissed.

Hot anger flooded through you as you were once again reminded that this wasn’t just some jealous dumbass who liked to annoy Harry’s friends, but a bigoted jealous dumbass who was cruel to those who didnt meet his standard of blood quality. Before you could respond with an insult of your own Professor McGonagall turned the corner behind him.

“Ah, miss selzman. Mr Malfoy and I were just looking for you. Would you follow me to my office please?”

The professor briskly walked down the hall towards her office, her shoes clicking rhythmically. You follow behind after shooting draco a glare, leaving him to gather his mess of papers. 

Once you were in Professor McGonagall's office she gestured for the two of you to sit, which you did as calmly as you could, not wanting to show any nerves or weakness to the rodent of a boy taking a seat beside you. 

_Why am I here? Surely I didn't do anything wrong?_

As if she could read your thoughts the professor began to explain.

“I understand that both of you missed school yesterday due to unrelated...dramatic... incidents,” McGonagall looked at Malfoy pointedly, clearly unamused with his avoidance of class. “Miss Selzman, I understand that Miss Granger provided you with copies of missed assignments which you completed and turned in. Mr Malfoy's friends didn't think enough to do that, so as to prevent him from falling behind any further and to help you absorb the content further, I thought it would serve both of you well to go over the work together during lunch. How does that sound?”

Despite the fact that the professor's idea sounded less like a suggestion and more like a command, the two of you begin to protest but McGonagall interrupts before you can get a full sentence out.

“Mr Malfoy I will remind you that this will prevent you from falling behind, I believe it is in your best interest to keep your grades up and please your father,” at the mention of his father draco blanched a bit and leaned back in his chair. 

“Miss Selzman, it would do you some good to go over it a second time, and I would encourage you to show kindness to a rival house.”

You begrudgingly slide back in your chair and look over at Malfoy with disgust.

Professor McGonagall claps her hands lightly, “well, now that that’s settled, you may use that desk,” she points to the side of the room before shuffling through some papers on her desk. You are about to ask about food but an annoyed Malfoy beats you to it.

“When are we supposed to eat?” 

McGonagall looks up and sighs before standing up, “I will get you some food from the hall but I expect you to be working when I return.”

At that she walked out the door, and you are left alone in her quiet office with the rodent. After a moment of silence you decide to be the bigger person and make your way to the table.

“Come on rat boy, contrary to what you might think your work isn’t going to do itself.”

Sitting there and explaining the work to malfoy was painful and boring, so when the professor finally returned with food and the promise of a break you were relieved. But that felt like it only lasted a second, and before you knew it you were thrown back into malfoys sea of questions. It couldn’t be possible that anyone _really_ had this many, so you started to suspect he was asking a number of these questions to annoy you on purpose. Finally you completed everything you could help him with and left the longest lunch of your life as quickly as possible. This interaction spoiled your mood for the rest of the day, so at dinner you didn't notice that your friends were doing the whispering thing again because you saw the disgusting little rodent when you were entering the hall. Hermione jumped a little when you sat down suddenly and angrily next to her.

“Irene where were you at lunch today?” Harry questioned before taking a drink out of his cup.

“I had to help that dumbass complete his work in McGonagall's office,” you spit out, jutting a finger in malfoys direction, “I swear that boy is as dumb as a box of hair, he asked the most useless questions and dragged on the whole thing so that it took up the entire period! And another thing—,” seeing how upset you were, your friends sat silently and waited as you ranted angrily about how much of an absolute bitch Malfoy was until you had said all you needed to say, and simply stabbed at food on your plate, mumbling quietly. You had calmed down significantly and Harry was about to ask you a very important question when he spotted malfoy strutting down the aisle between tables towards their group. He tried to warn Hermione discreetly but you had seen the motion of his hand and put two and two together, spinning around to face Malfoy clutching your knife in your hand.

“How’s not the time malfoy.” Ron spits out coldly.

Malfoy scoffs, “why would I listen to whatever a Weasley has to say? Seeing as you're a blood traitor, your opinio—,” he is cut off by you standing and hitting his head with a handful of mashed potatoes.

He looks at you indignantly, moving to pull out his wand, but you are so completely fed up with his behavior that the next thing you throw is the knife clutched in your hand. Aiming to hit his reaching hand before he can cast some puny hex. Alas, Dumbledore noticed the small commotion, and before your knife could sever the rat boy's hand he intervened, the knife clattering to the floor.

You find yourself following Dumbledore, McGonagall, professor Snape, and Malfoy, to Dumbledore's office, everyone’s footsteps echoing through the halls like an announcement to the students, 

_“uh oh, Irene tried to Maim a fellow student, come watch her walk of shame as she’s led to a certain expulsion!”_

Thankfully mostly everyone was still eating in the great hall so no prying eyes watched her here, but when Dumbledore's voice boomed _“MY OFFICE!”_ through the hall everyone turned to stare in her direction with curious looks. This walk of silence was almost worse, and you panic at the thought of being sent away, never to return. Of course you acted impulsively, out of anger, but didnt you have a right to react as you did? Draco is so annoying and cruel and ever present, you just felt so fed up you had to ensure he left you alone. Maybe if you’d succeeded he would’ve, in the split second before you threw the knife you considered the fact that you might damage your reputation but the potential of scaring draco away made up your mind. What you hadn’t considered, until Dumbledore led you away from the hall, was that you surely would’ve been expelled for such an act. And considering you almost succeeded you probably were still in danger of being expelled, if not that you definitely in danger of detention.

Finally the group reaches dumbledore's office, where everyone stands in awkward silence while dumbledore sits and stares at his desk.

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m not fond of sending students away over mistakes such as these, but to forget this matter entirely with no discipline is not the right way to go about this either. Miss Selzman, you will serve detention once a week for the next three months with either professor Snape or McGonagall, depending on availability. And you, along with Mr Malfoy, will engage in community service activities to better our school four times a week for the rest of the semester.”

Malfoy opens his mouth to protest, “headmaster, I hardly thi-,”

“Unless, Mr Malfoy, you wish to spend some time in detention as well?”

At that malfoy shuts his mouth.

“Now, I see it's getting late so I will release you two to your respective houses. Sleep well and be ready for your first assignment tomorrow.”

The two professors stay behind to talk to Dumbledore, but you and Malfoy leave as fast as possible. 

“Unbelievable.” Malfoy mutters under his breath.

“What? If you weren’t such a terrible person all the time we wouldn’t be in this mess. If anything you're the unbelievable one, immature insults and all.”

Instead of arguing with you, Malfoy just shook his head and walked off towards the dungeons. Infuriated by his somewhat nonchalant attitude, you make your way to the gryffindor house. Your friends are once again too distracted to see you arrive so you retreat to your bed, thinking about what a mess this year is turning out to be, and dreading what the next day could hold.


End file.
